Dying with Christ and being with Him in His resurrection

Raymond Kyaw Aung

Today together with the Church we celebrate Palm Sunday. This Sunday is also called Passion Sunday. We begin the Holy Week with Palm/Passion Sunday. For us Catholic Christians, we meditate on Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection this Holy Week.
 
In today’s Gospel readings, we heard that Jesus entered Jerusalem. His entry was not to celebrate a birthday or feast day but to suffer and die. If we know that we will suffer or die by entering into a town or a village, are we going to enter or not? Probably we will not enter that town or village because we do not want to suffer or die. 

If we have pain or if we are suffering when we get sick, we take medicine or go to our family doctor to get pain relief or a quick recovery. Humanly speaking, we are afraid to suffer or die. Like us, Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Mark 15:34).”

In Matthew 26: 39, Jesus even said, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup be taken away from me.” “But for our sake, Jesus added, “Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Jesus denied His will and took up His cross for us, sinners, and for our salvation.

In the second reading, St. Paul also said, and I quote, “Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness, and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 

Jesus died not even on the floor or on his bed but on the cross. Is there any human being who dies on the cross in our age?

St. Paul continues saying in the second reading, I quote, “Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." 

I remember a saying, “No pain, no gain.” If there is pain, there is gain. If there is darkness, there is light. If there is death, there is resurrection. 

For us Christians, we believe if we die with Christ, we will be with Him in His Resurrection.

My dear brothers and sisters, with all faith and devotion, let us commemorate the Lord’s entry into the city for our salvation, following in his footsteps, so that, being made by his grace partakers of the Cross, we may have a share also in his Resurrection and in his life. May God bless us all! Amen.